Meteosat images

Don't hesitate to to receive for free the locations of the centers or corners of the Meteosat (Nadir at 0°,0°) pixels in latitude and longitude in a CSV file.

The path of Meteosat (Nadir at 0°,0°) images, from satellite to rooftop dishes

Meteosat images are disseminated by EUMETCast service (the EUMETSAT's data distribution service) every 15 min. After image collection, the images are sent down to Darmstadt in Germany for geometrical rectifications and radiometric calibration. Images are sent back to Meteosat, and then transmitted to EutelSat's HotBird-6 satellite in GEO located at 13º E longitude for dissemination. The service was initiated at the end of April 2003 utilizing data file distribution via DVB-S (Digital Video Broadcast-Satellite) to a wide audience thanks to reception stations (dishes) located within the geographical coverage zone. Since early 2011, MINES ParisTech and Transvalor propose a duplicated and synchronized acquisition chain, with two dishes installed on each of their premice rooftops.

Meteosat image (Nadir 0°,0°) characteristics and spatial resolution

The Meteosat satellites are geostationnary, i.e. they operate in equatorial orbits at an altitude of 35 790 kilometers above the surface of Earth. The size of the image is 3712 by 3712 pixels. You need approx. 354 000 pixels to cover the whole Europe, 307 000 for the Arabian Peninsula, 63 000 for Turkey and 48 000 for France.

Don't hesitate to to receive for free the locations of the centers of the Meteosat pixels in latitude and longitude in a CSV file.

Corners of MSG pixels for Corsica

The spatial resolution is the size of the projection a MSG pixel onto the Earth surface. It depends on the latitude and longitude of this projection. For MSG, the spatial resolution is illustrated on the right hand side. The nadir, i.e. the point of the Earth surface located just below the satellite, is (lat, lon) = (0°,0°) and corresponds to the center of the image. The spatial resolution at nadir is 3 km and is decreasing as we moved away from this point. The resolution ranges from 3 km to more than 12 km on the edges of the planet.

The size of a Meteosat pixel projected on the Earth surface is computed as follow:rt is the radius of the earth (≈ 6378 km)δlatij the variation in latitude in radians seen by the MSG pixel ijδlonij idem for the longitudelatij is the latitude in radians of the pixel ij

As δlatijδlonij<<1, the spatial resolution in the north/south direction (Rns) and in the west/east (Rwe) direction are given by:Rns = Rt * δlatRwe = Rt * δlon * cos(latij)

Consequently, you obtain the area A of a given country is given by:A = Rns * Rwe = Σ cos(latij) dlatij dlonij Rt2

Current Meteosat operational satellite located (lat,lon) = (0°,0°) is the 3rd satellite of Meteosat Second Generation (MSG-3), also named Meteosat-10. Meteosat-11 will replace Meteosat-10 on 2018-02-20. Both satellites will operate in parallel for two weeks before and after this date (more details here).